Albert Einstein said, “Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances of survival for life on earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.”

Check out these articles:

http://planetsave.com/blog/2009/01/29/80-percent-of-amazon-deforestation-stems-from-cattle-ranching-2/

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19526134.500-meat-is-murder-on-the-environment.html

http://www.grist.org/news/maindish/2006/02/21/parker/

Surprise, surprise… the meat industry is one of the leading causes of deforestation, pollution and carbon dioxide emissions in the world.

Let me set the record straight - I don’t believe in going total vegetarian - as this can be really difficult for people raised on meat. But most people aren’t aware of how many options they have when it comes to going meatless. When they think of eating less meat, they think of eating more veggies and foods they don’t like to compensate.

As someone who has spent the majority of their life being a vegetarian (I didn’t even TRY meat until I was 12 or so) and also being someone who HATES most vegetables and gross foods, I can tell you being vegetarian or eating less meat does NOT = having to eat things most people find gross like broccoli and tofu.

For instance - most recipes that include meat as just one ingredient but not the main one can easily be substituted with more of the other ingredients and taste just as good or better. I’ve been leaving out the chicken in pasta and the bacon in casseroles my whole life and everyone seems to find these foods really yummy still.

To substitute the amount of protien you’ll be missing, eat some beans and nuts. They have even more protein than meat, and all the same vitamins and nutrients. Fill your tacos with beans instead of beef, try a black bean burger at chili’s… it’s AMAZING. Just don’t get the low fat ranch on it - ask for barbeque sauce or something yummy and get the fries instead of the veggies that come with it.

Like I said, I don’t think everyone should cut meat out of their diet… but if we all ate less, Brazil wouldn’t be hacking down as much rainforest, major cities wouldn’t be so smoggy they have health warnings in effect, and we would leave our planet and ourselves healthier if we did. After all, the first job God ever gave man was to take care of his creations, and what is the point of eating more meat than you have to if it’s helping destroy our planet? (Not to mention the animals themselves)

If we all ate less meat and ate more of everything else, these farmers would start planting more crops instead of raising more cattle and cutting down more tress. Cattle and animals need a LOT more land to farm.

I’m a firm believer that you can’t stop anything unless you get to the very ROOT of the problem, which in this case is demand. If there was no demand for more meat, these problems wouldn’t exist. Just like if there wasn’t a demand for slaves, there wouldn’t be 27 Million people in the world today who are enslaved. Simple as that.

That’s my one serious post for a while. These take a lot out of me

Rating:  

One of the best movies I’ve ever seen. It’s just about perfect. What stuck me above everything else was the pulsating, riveting soundtrack. As if the gripping imagery of the slums of Mumbai wasn’t enough, the head pounding indian music that accompanies it throws you into the perfect mood to carry you through the movie with a deep compassion for Salim and Jamal for withstanding such an intense, harsh childhood… it acts to instantly uproot you from comfy, rich America and put you right in the heart of India. 

The story line is an unbeliveable, albiet creative and fun idea. A “slumdog” that nobody can believe would actually advance to the million rupee point on India’s “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire” has to prove he isn’t cheating by re-telling most of his life and how he knows the answers to the police. He only went on the show in the first place because he knew his lost love would be watching… he wasn’t even interested in the money, despite growing up in abject poverty - traveling as an orphan all over India; begging for money and finding food in garbage dumps and even being abducted by a child slave owner for a time. 

What Jamal overcomes just to find and rescue his childhood love is heroic and spectacular… and this movie serves also as a remarkable expose of the poverty in India despite the growing wealth of the country and it’s upper class, and the hope of the slumdogs to one day prosper. 

When I returned home from this movie the first thing I did was research Mumbai and how we can all help the people in extreme poverty there. Turns out the Indian government is already hard at work in doing so, since India’s wealth is growing and they want to make Mumbai, the largest city, a more acceptable business destination. What they’re going to do with the millions that live there, I’m not sure - but all the slums are planned to be demolished by the government and in there place they are building low-rent apartment housing, apparently. Hopefully most of the slum dwellers can afford these places - for those that can’t let’s pray that India has a plan for them… 

You can find out more about the situation in Mumbai at this amazing website - where you can even hear interviews from families that live in the slums. 

I’m more swamped with work than I ever have been in my entire life.

While I know I should be ridiculously thankful, I have only been sleeping about 3-5 hours each night in order to put a dent in some of the work I have.

Writing and taking short breaks here in there is all that keeps me sane, which is why I’m taking this break now.

Plus I want to keep a record of some of what I’ve done recently, so I don’t forget and it doesn’t pile up too high.

Some of my recent work includes Article One’s myspace customization (I took the photos used in the design as well as doing all the coding, etc) a new newsboys tour poster, lots of Inpop splash pages to make way for the new website I’m currently working on, packaging for the new Paul Colman album “History”, as well as Paul’s current press photos; the packaging for Julian Drive’s debut “My Coming Day” a photo shoot with my twin sister Ally…

Oh plus there was assisting my favorite photographer in a photo shoot… sorta, haha…